NORTHAMPTON — Sometimes the final score doesn’t tell the full story.

That was the case for the Franklin Township Junior Connie Mack baseball team, which saw its season end with a misleading 15-5 loss to Lehigh Township in the semifinals Tuesday evening.

After a 24-hour rain delay and a change of venue, Mike Lisetski Field at Northampton High School hosted the matchup. Franklin, which handed Lehigh its only loss earlier in the season with a 4-2 victory, was aiming to repeat that result and punch its ticket to the championship game.

With the stakes high, the first three innings unfolded as a pitcher’s duel between Franklin’s Korbin Ahner and Lehigh’s Mason Martisofsky.

Franklin struck first in the second on an RBI single by Owen Moyer, but Martisofsky helped his own cause in the third with a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 1.

After escaping a late Franklin threat in the fourth, Lehigh began to find its rhythm at the plate. A series of three singles and aggressive baserunning pushed across three runs and gave Lehigh a 4-1 lead.

But Franklin responded in the fifth. A stretch of four consecutive singles, combined with smart baserunning, brought home four runs to put Franklin in front 5-4 and chase Martisofsky from the game.

With the bases loaded and one out, Lehigh turned to its ace, Matt Buskirk, to stop the bleeding. He did just that, inducing a 1-2-3 double play to end the threat and what proved to be a critical turning point.

“A foot or two either way and that ball skips by and we score a run — and maybe they only get one (out) on that one,” said Franklin head coach Ben Boyer. “We had them on the ropes. I know they wanted to try and get through without (using Buskirk), but we forced their hand and they had to bring him in.”

Lehigh flipped the momentum in the bottom half of the inning, tying the game with back-to-back doubles from Chase Bodnar and Martisofsky. Three more singles later in the frame produced two additional runs, giving Lehigh a 7-5 edge with its top arm on the mound.

Franklin went down in order in the sixth, and Lehigh capitalized with a barrage of offense in the bottom half. Patient at-bats, aggressive running, and four RBI singles led to eight runs and sealed the 15-5 final.

Despite the scoreline, Lehigh head coach Chris Bodnar praised Franklin’s performance.

“The score does not indicate what this game was at all; it was tight all the way through,” he said. “Credit to them, they have a great team. There is no quit in them. They will fight to the bitter end. We scored three, they came back and scored four.”

Though the loss was a tough one to swallow, Boyer hopes this season’s success inspires his players to push themselves further.

“What I want them to take away from this is that if they really want to play baseball moving forward in high school, they have to start putting in the work outside of practice and games,” he said. “They have to start working. I think we try to instill that in them a little bit. I want them to be proud of what they accomplished, but I want them to be hungry for more.”

CHAMPIONSHIP BOUND ... Lehigh Township will face South Lehigh (Grey) in the Junior Connie Mack championship game this evening.

Franklin Twp. 010 040 - 5 8 5

Lehigh Twp. 001 338 - 15 15 3

Ahner, Moyer (4), Kish (6), Albert (6) and Atwood; Martisofsky, Buskirk (5) and Bodnar. W - Buskirk. L - Moyer.

Records: Franklin Township (15-5); Lehigh Township (19-1).